The plan

The D-Day mission of the 50th Northumbrian Division was complicated. It was to capture Bayeux, to establish a bridgehead across the N13 Bayeux to Caen road, to take the German gun battery at Longues and to establish contact with flanking formations. This latter involved the capture of Port en Bessin to link up with Americans from OMAHA Beach.

The beach was subdivided into JIG and KING sectors, west and east respectively, and each sector given to a brigade formation to attack. Thus there were two leading brigades, 231st Brigade on JIG and 69th Brigade on KING. The nonmilitary reader can be easily misled by statements such as 'the attack was made on a brigade front'. A simplistic and apparently correct interpretation would be that a whole brigade's complement of men attacked simultaneously. Nothing could be further from the truth. The art of delegation from higher to lower formation steadily reduces the size of force. On KING, for example, the formation which attacked at H-Hour was not of brigade size but the size of two battalions —the Green Howards and the EastYorkshires. An elemental view of the structure of the British Corps is shown in the diagram on page 120, but this ignores the complications of forces being attached for special purposes such as Royal Engineers and DD tanks. It does, however, help to keep the relative sizes of formations in perspective.

The divisional plan was that the 231 st Brigade would land east of le Hamel (Asnelles), clear the village and then drive along the coast towards the Americans at Port en Bessin, the latter having been taken by commandos from the rear. The 69th Brigade was to land west of la

Riviere (Ver sur Mer) and to head inland towards the N13 Bayeux to Caen road. The leading brigades were thus moving apart. Into the gap between them at 1000 hours were to come two follow-up brigades, the 56th and the 151 st. Their task was to take Bayeux.

What Happened on D-Day

The weather was bad, probably at its worst, opposite GOLD Beach. When the troops clambered down into their LCA's some 10,000yd offshore, the Force 5 wind was whipping up waves of over 4ft. Those who had survived sea sickness in the relative calm of their transport ship now fell prey to the pitching and rolling of their small craft. Despite their hyoscine hydrobromide anti-sea sickness tablets few men failed to fill their 'Bags, Vomit'. So rough was the sea that it was decided that the DD tanks, scheduled to land ahead of the infantry, would not be launched but would be landed directly onto the beach.

The air and naval bombardment followed the pattern established on the American beaches, although the British opted for a longer naval bombardment. Anticipating that the German armoured threat would come against the British beaches, General Montgomery had over 130 warships in the British Task Force begin firing twenty minutes before the Americans at O530 hours and continue until H-Hour. His idea was to give the assaulting troops the maximum opportunity to break through the crust of defenders and to move inland at speed in preparation for an armoured counterattack.

The leading formations touched down within a minute or two of their allotted time and at the right place. At le Hamel a German strongpoint held out until noon causing considerable casualties by raking the beach with machine-gun fire. At la Riviere the preliminary bombardment had been very effective and there was relatively little opposition, although German resistance was stiffer than had been anticipated because of the presence of troops of the 352nd Division. The reserve and follow-up formations were landed successfully and while not all of the D-Day objectives had been achieved, by the end of the day the 50th Division beachhead measured six miles by six, the N13 was in sight, reconnaissance patrols had entered the outskirts of Bayeux and 47th Royal Marine Commando were on the heights above Port en Bessin. Although there had not been any contact with the Americans from OMAHA Beach in the west, contact had been established with the Canadians from JUNO Beach in the east.